March 12th, 2045, 10:03am: Atlas City, North Carolina, USA
Day 2The sound of ringing began to slowly fade, finding itself replaced by the soft, lapping sound of water caressing the shores. Richard opened his eyes slowly, taking note of the fact he was face down on sand. He slowly picked himself up, taking a look around him to see what had happened. The Beast was gone, or at least nearly so. Only a few scraps of its rotten flesh, the dark colored, fleshy veins, and patches of mold remained. Out at sea, blue walls of light began to fade, as water receded back, settling down from a great disruption. His whole body vibrated, his shoulders felt tingly, his stomach emptied and hollowed. Richard was alive, but felt as though he'd just been passed over by the specter of Hell.
He heard coughing from next to him, and turned in time to see the man in tweed sitting on the sands, knees tucked in to his chest, arms wrapped around them. His legs were both bleached white bones, all the flesh gone, and the decay even starting to eat away at his skeleton. Richard felt sick to his stomach seeing this, had to hold back the begging instinct to cry. "You're... Alive. What... What happens next?" Richard asked shakily.The man's breaths were heavy, pained, and becoming much fewer.
“For you? Well I hope you'll take my advice. Tell everyone what I told you, whoever can help you face this crisis. I tell you know, whatever it is we faced here today, all things in existence... They're all in danger. To fight this menace, what lurks in the dark... It will take every ounce of effort the universe has to fight back.” The man in tweed coughed more, hacking up yet more blood as he slowly released his arms, starting to lay back in the sand, face towards the sky.
"And you?" Richard asked anxiously.The man sighed and nodded.
“I already told you. I'm going to die. Right here. Please don't close my eyes, I don't want to see any more darkness. I want some kind of sky to be the last thing my sight tastes before the next life takes me.” Richard stood motionless a moment, simply watching the man in Tweed lay there. A few minutes passed, some pained, forced breaths. Finally, the last breath was exhaled, the chest stopped moving, and his eyes seemed to glaze over. Richard was about to leave, but a noise and motion behind him alerted him. He turned around and looked on as terror filled him once more.The Beast's remains were moving once again. A small pile of rotten, fetid flesh with a few veins and tentacles writhing about it. That strange, dark, unnatural mass that tried to pass for its eyes, stared at Richard with intensity. He could feel something wrong with it, so wrong that nothing on Earth could compare to it. It sat there, watching.
"I think we're alone now......" The sound was faint and crackly as it emanated from the Beast.
"This is Doctor Heather Wright again. I don't know what this thing is but... The horrors... The horrors are unimaginable... I don't know what we're going to do..." These words of the strange woman also emanated, softly, faintly, before all sound from the Beast dissipated.
Blink. Blink. Blink. The eyes of the Beast, that strange dark aura, had vanished. Richard couldn't tell if it had been steadily disappearing over time, or if it was an instant thing, but it was gone now, without a single trace. The body of the Beast fell limp, all life, movement, energy completely gone from it, even the Offspring were all either dead, or fell to the ground lifelessly. Whatever had been left of the Beast was gone.______________________________________________________
"I expect the monster had a different opinion from you. Many died who didn't have to, true, but many more have been saved. Of course, we're trying to speculate on the motives of a 300 foot tall swamp thing, so it's hard to totally empathize." He chuckled slightly, crossing his arms as he gazed out to the waters of the Atlantic, beginning to steady themselves once more, but still polluted with the mess of viscera that had entered them.
"But yes, Kiran will have lots of materials to work with it seems, we'll need to act fast though before the military-" Maxwell's words were cut off. He heard something in the distance approaching. Fast. It was coming from behind them, from somewhere further inland. As The Shape turned to look at what was going on, he finally caught a glimpse.Seven jet black, VTOL helicopters, though it appeared where the rotor blades would have been, they had opted instead for jets. The military had sent in back up. No... No that didn't make sense. In the distance one could see small plumes of smoke and the faint orange glow of fire. The helicopters passed overhead, coming down to hover over the beach.
Over the Corpse of the Beast.
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As the helicopters hovered over the beach, a group of twenty soldiers clad entirely in black descended by rappelling. Before anyone on or near the beach could react, a flurry of rockets were sent sailing from the helicopters, directly at the canon base where the military had been scrambling about. Explosions erupted and tore through the unprepared men and women. Dozens were killed, others (the lucky ones) sent flying back.
While that onslaught ensued, the soldiers on the ground quickly went about securing a small area around the remains of the beast. The majority of them took up places in a semi-circle, guarding from any attacks on foot from the city, while the others quickly filled jars, test tubes, and syringes with whatever they could find and take from the Beast. It even appeared they managed to find a few samples of the black ichor that had rained down from the dragon earlier.
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On their shoulders, where typically a flag patch would be located, was a simple black rectangle. Stitched onto it was a simple, distinct, white outline of a square.
The fear of Hell and Death flooded through Richard again, but he dared not move. He wanted so desperately to do something, but what could he do? They had more ability to kill than he did, or potentially anyone else on the beach. A few supers bravely tried to approach the gun men, to put a stop to them, but they were responded to with gunfire and strange electrical beams. The heroes who weren't stopped by the bullets were stopped by those beams, their powers seeming to 'flicker' and stop working properly. The bullets worked much better after that.
What was the Square all about? Was this some kind of terrorist group? Some evil super organization? What was going on, and how did they manage to scramble here so fast? All questsions Richard wasn't getting an answer to. The soldiers finished up, tying their samples up to ropes that quickly disappeared into the helicopters above, followed by the soldiers, going only a few at a time. As each of them disappeared into their respective VTOL's, the remaining ones ensured that the area remained secure and that no other threats tried to take them out.
Of course no one else did. The whole affair had started and ended in the span of ten minutes or less. And when the last soldier disappeared into the door's of their VTOL, all seven dispersed and sped away from the scene on the beach, heading back inland, from where they came from, disappearing into the distance somewhere over American soil.______________________________________________________
A mug was heard shattering in the evacuation tent the Colonel had taken to using, pieces scattered across the tabletop he'd smashed it against. He was practically screaming into a radio mic.
"Why did the airforce not shoot those things down! Where were our jets! How did this not get detected!"The voice from the other end of the line came through more meekly than the Colonel's.
"Sir, we DID scramble the jets. We just barely got them up in time after eye witnesses reported it to the base. They didn't show up on radar! But even still, we sent five jets after them, and every single one was shot down! Five pilots gave their lives and died to who knows who! We're completely in the dark here!"The Colonel snarled in absolute, vile contempt.
"Apparently every other American alive today is too!" He shouted slamming the mic back into place on a radio. He collapsed into a chair, pressing his fingers to his temples and forehead, pressing hard as he attempted to rub some kind of sense into his own mind. Finally, he turned to look at Sairyn, whom had taken to busying himself with Sairyn things.
"Pendrake," the colonel said with a calmness utterly opposite to his behavior moments before.
"Since this has been such a fabulous mess, we may as well head out now. Other brass are going to be coming in to handle this very quickly. You ready to come with me for that talk?" He finished in an entirely neutral tone.
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With a slight sway of unbalance, Richard slowly walked his way back up the beach, taking a moment to cast a long gaze at the man in tweed, resting peacefully on the sands, eyes still cast up at the sky. Richard felt the sprinkling of rain pattering down on him, finally taking notice of it. It had a somewhat calming effect, as much as was possible given the circumstances. He continued his walk back towards the boardwalk.
It wasn't long before he noticed the familiar figures he'd come to know since yesterday, and a new one it seemed as well? "Crazy day, huh?" He muttered to them as he kept walking just past and behind the group, to where his SUV sat, tailgate still down. Richard sat down on the gate, pulled his mask off, and sank his head into his hands.
At this rate, he'd lost the sensation to be worried about people seeing his face.
